Background: Research
indicates that the work environment in healthcare is under pressure,
and furthermore that work environment factors are associated with
job satisfaction.

Aims: The aim was to investigate how nurses
employed in emergency departments and trauma centers perceived their
work environment and if there were any differences in job satisfaction
between these two types of departments. Second to investigate factors
that may be associated with positive job satisfaction.

Methods: 525 nurses were invited to participate.
Work environment and job satisfaction was measured by the validated
questionnaire: The Danish Psychosocial Work Environment Questionnaire
(DPQ).

Results and conclusion: In total 304/525 (58%)
nurses participated in the survey. No significant difference in
job satisfaction between the two types of departments was found.

In general nurses from emergency departments rated the quality
of their work environment higher than nurses from trauma centers;
however, only a few findings were significant.

The strongest predictor for job satisfaction was recognition
and wellbeing.

It is known that
human storytelling is crucial to achieving understanding of oneself, one’s
situation and one’s life. This is especially important when humans
are faced with health issues. Nevertheless, the use of a narrative
approach can be further developed within the field of healthcare.
Awareness of the importance of communicating with the patient is
crucial for the support provided by the health professional. In
recent decades, attention to the patient’s voice in the form of
patient participation has made it clear that the patient must have
an influence on the health care provided in order to fully benefit
thereof, and this has become an area of special focus. Still, the
possibilities of the patient’s narrative have further potential
in clinical practice. This is supported by significant theories
and research. Based on these, an illustration is given in which
the health professional listens to the patient’s narrative in order
to promote the patient’s understanding of themselves, their situation
and their life.

In order to strengthen
the nursing identity and quality an understanding framework has been
developed for neuro-rehabilitative nursing at Hammel Neurorehabilitation
Centre and University Research Clinic. The framework was developed
in the period January 2017 to December 2017 by a working group.

The goal of developing a common framework is to strengthen the
nursing staff’s knowledge and professional awareness of the patient’s
challenges and needs in the neurorehabilitation efforts. At the
same time a common conceptual kit helps to strengthen the roles
and functions of nursing staff in interdisciplinary cooperation
for the benefit of patients and relatives.

The framework is used as learning and reflection tool to focus
on three dimensions of cooperation in the individual patient pathways.

Nursing staff experiencing high recognition and compliance with
their role as neurorehabilitation nurses and the framework can contribute
to increased professional systematics where nursing staff have consensus
about and apply the same academic concepts and terms.

When new technologies
are implemented in caring for persons living with dementia in nursing
care facilities, technology challenges health care professionals
not only by the technical aspects of use, but also by the way it
potentially forms new practices. In the article, we discuss how
technologies influence care practices, seeing these as socio-technical
systems. We use three examples of technology to demonstrate that
when technologies make sense and comply with values of care, they
can supplement ‘warm hands’. The argument is that instead of understanding
warm hands and cold technologies as oppositions, the practices of
using technologies (or not) should be understood as dependent on
the creation of meaning as well as on knowledge about dementia.
Thus, cold technology is becoming warm if warm hands, or proper professional
reflection, are part of the choreography of care.